Thursday, June 07, 2018

Why I hate Russia, part 2

Four years ago, I wrote a post titled Why I hate Russia, which to this day accumulates comments by various people wondering (politely or otherwise) how one can hate such a wonderful state. To clarify this, I am quoting below yesterday's report from the Telegraph's site, by Alec Luhn.

"Russian court jails teenage critics as Putin cracks down on dissent ahead of World Cup

A Moscow court has left a
19-year-old Putin critic in pre-trial detention until September, as the
Kremlin uses sweeping security measures to drown out dissent during the
World Cup... Veterinary student Maria Dubovik... and five others who disparaged Vladimir Putin's government in
private chats were jailed in March and face 10 years in prison for
“organising an extremist group”. They include Anna Pavlikova and
Vyacheslav Kryukov, who were 17 and 19 at the time of their arrest.
Four more defendants are under home arrest...

On Monday, a Moscow court sentenced Ukrainian journalist Roman
Sushchenko, who was detained during a 2016 trip to Russia, to 12 years
in prison for spying... Oleg Sentsov, a pro-Ukrainian film director who was given 20 years in
an Arctic prison for allegedly planning to blow up a Lenin monument in
Crimea, has been holding a hunger strike since May 14 to demand the
release of Ukrainian political prisoners...

In the case of Ms Dubovik, she and several friends had begun discussing politics on the messenger app Telegram, which Russia has tried to ban, following a failed “revolution” of mostly young protesters
called by self-exiled nationalist Vyacheslav Maltsev in November. They
later began meeting in a McDonalds and going to opposition protests in
Moscow.

A newcomer to the group, Alexander Konstantinov, rented an office for
the would-be activists and wrote a political manifesto calling for Mr
Putin to be tried by a “people's tribunal,” according to his testimony. He took some of them to shoot targets at a hunting reserve and learn
to make Molotov cocktails at an abandoned building outside Moscow,
although her lawyer said Ms Dubovik didn't go. Mr Konstantinov was in fact
gathering evidence against the young people. Testimony revealed that a
police investigator and at least one other man had also been secretly
embedded in the group...

Opposition activist Ildar Dadin,
who was released from prison last year after Amnesty International
declared him a prisoner of conscience, was one of several dozen
supporters not allowed into the courtroom on Tuesday.

He asked how European teams could participate in a World Cup “in a country that kills and imprisons innocent people”.

About Me

My name is Maya Markova. This blog is my little corner where I write about things that interest me, in as politically incorrect style as I like. I do not claim to be clever, good, free of prejudice and bigotry, broad-minded, enlightened, polite, attractive or superior in any other way. This is not a science blog and I write here what I like, not what people think a "scientist" should write. I try not to bore my readers but of course I cannot guarantee that what I am writing will be interesting for you.